Poster

DNA-based tools for biological systems modulation

Cary Tutmarc^1,2, Daniel Moreno^1,2, Tina Händler¹, Iman Elbalasy^1,3, Steffen Grosser¹, David M. Smith^1,2,4,5, Josef A. Käs¹, Jörg Schnauß^1,2,6

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Cells have access to a plethora of specialized tools when it comes to adapting to the surrounding environment, transporting materials, moving through the extracellular matrix, proliferating, and even dying. These tools (i.e. proteins) can be produced on-demand via gene expression as needed and cells generally are masters of this craft. However, just like any other mass production facility, sometimes supply out paces demand (i.e. cancer) or machines break down (i.e. premature apoptosis). By utilizing biological building materials, we attempt to reverse-engineer naturally occurring proteins and construct synthetic, bionic tools to modulate cellular systems. Specifically, DNA is used as a tunable material that can be conjugated with modifications (peptides, fluorophores, etc.) through a Click-Chemistry approach. So far, the focus has been on synthetic cytoskeletal protein (actin, vimentin) crosslinkers. In vitro, F-actin polymer networks can be tuned by different concentrations and lengths of crosslinkers. Additionally, cell experiments have shown that cancer cells take up DNA-based vimentin crosslinkers without the need of transfection agents. These linkers seem to bind to cytoplasmic vimentin without increased cell death and can be used as a live-stain for vimentin.